Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique

From City Halls in Glasgow, violist Timothy Ridout joins the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Principal Conductor Maxim Emelyanychev for an all-Berlioz concert.

When Paganini requested a concerto to showcase his Stradivarius viola, Berlioz responded with a work that cast the soloist as ‘a kind of melancholy dreamer in the style of Byron’s Childe Harold’. In it, Berlioz sketched out his memories of time spent in Italy and of country life among the Abruzzi hills. Four years earlier, Berlioz wrote Symphonie Fantastique after falling in love with an Irish actress called Harriet Smithson. It was a revolutionary work at the time, following a hero’s journey through new love, grand passions and destruction.

Recorded earlier this month and presented by Stephen Broad.

Berlioz: Harold in Italy
Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique

Timothy Ridout (Viola)
Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Maxim Emelyanychev (Conductor)

To listen on most smart speakers, just say "ask BBC Sounds to play Radio 3 in Concert."

Stephen Broad - Presenter
Douglas Templeton - Producer